(ANSA) - CAIRO, DEC 06 - Tomorrow in Mansura, Egypt on the Nile delta, the third hearing of the trial against Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna accused of spreading false information through journalistic articles and inmate in prison for exactly 22 months.
As announced by one of his lawyers, the hearing will be used by his pool of lawyers to present a defensive brief prepared on the basis of the access obtained with the previous session, that of 28 September last.
The single judge of the State Security Court for minor offenses in Patrick's hometown, in addition to possibly replying to the memory during the session, will decide whether to update the hearing again or to pronounce a sentence of final conviction or acquittal, has provided for a representative of the EIPR , the Egyptian NGO for which Patrick worked as a researcher.
The 30-year-old was recently transferred from the Cairo prison in Tora, where he spent most of his pre-trial detention, at a Mansura prison according to an activist friend of his.
As in all hearings, Italian diplomats and, at the request of the Italian Embassy, also from other countries will go to court to monitor the process as they had done before for the renewal sessions of protective custody.
Patrick was arrested on February 7, 2020 returning to Egypt for a vacation and the 19 months of custody were justified with accusations of subversive propaganda made through ten posts on Facebook, The indictment took place instead for "spreading false news inside and outside the country" based on three articles written by Zaki, including one from 2019 on Christians in Egypt persecuted by Isis and discriminated against by sections of Muslim society.
The researcher and activist faces up to five years in prison.
(HANDLE).
